Finance committee  They're basically ordinary people. In Windsor, of course, we're right next to Detroit, so you have a large workforce of maybe 6,000 people who run across the border every day. They're clerks, they work in lawyers' offices, they work at some of the big department stores—things lik

Finance committee  They have nothing to do with it. The 85%, while it was in the fourth protocol, was the maximum they could tax in Canada for Canadian recipients of U.S. social security. But we could reduce that back to zero if we wanted to.

Finance committee  One of the first phone calls I got when people found I was involved in this was from a lady in Quebec. She had worked all her life in the United States and for the U.S. consulate. She was 85 years old. She had just broken her $1,000 pair of glasses; she was nearly blind. She rece

Finance committee  That's it?

Finance committee  Correct.

Finance committee  In the United States you're taxed with all the social programs you receive from Canada as if you were receiving U.S. social security. It's taxed the same over there, if you're a resident.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  In 1996 there were approximately 100,000 people in Canada collecting U.S. social security.

Finance committee  These people were 65 years and older, or probably 65 to 99 in that year. That was eleven years ago, so probably 60,000 or 70,000 are still alive, but I don't know.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for this opportunity to tell you our story. I collect U.S. social security so I'm well involved with the facts. During the Christmas season of 1995, residents who spent part or all of their working careers in the United States received a letter that shattered